BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A Seymour man has pleaded guilty in connection with a bribery and kickback scheme involving the United States Post Office in Danbury.
Michael D. Lutz, 26, of Seymour, pleaded guilty Wednesday, in Bridgeport to conspiracy to commit honest services wire, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years. Sentencing is scheduled for May 16.
Prosecutors said Ephrem D. Nguyen was employed by the U.S. Postal Service as the Postmaster of the Danbury Post Office in Danbury. Part of his job was supervising the maintenance and repair of all equipment, facilities, and vehicles assigned to the post office. Lutz was the general manager for a company, identified in court documents as “Vendor-1,” which provided vehicle maintenance and repair services for the Danbury Post Office.
Officials said that in November 2020, Nguyen required that all vehicle maintenance and repair work for the Danbury Post Office be performed by Vendor-1, even though Nguyen knew that another vendor already had a contract with for those services. Nguyen demanded that Vendor-1 provide free vehicle maintenance and repairs for himself, one of his children, a USPS employee, and employee of Nguyen’s personal business.
In 2022, Nguyen asked Lutz for $90,000 in cash bribes. In exchange for these bribes, Nguyen caused the USPS to overpay the Vendor-1 for vehicle maintenance and repair, which Nguyen characterized as a “raise.”
Between approximately January 2022 and February 2023, Nguyen used USPS credit cards to pay Vendor-1 approximately $1.1 million, approximately $260,000 of which was for legitimate maintenance and repair work.
The USPS lost approximately $843,271.32 though this scheme.
Lutz is released on bond pending sentencing.
On October 13, 2023, Nguyen pleaded guilty to one count of honest services wire fraud related to this scheme and also admitted that he embezzled more than $80,000 from the USPS by using his USPS credit cards to rent vehicles for the personal use of himself and others, and that he approved more than $8,000 in fraudulent travel expense reimbursement claims for a co-worker.
Nguyen is released on a $100,000 bond and residing in Massachusetts while awaiting sentencing.
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